NKY biz leaders regroup on Brent Spence project

Early Wednesday morning, members of the Northern Kentucky CEO Roundtable gathered at the Metropolitan Club in Covington for their monthly meeting.

One item dominated much of the discussion among the corporate and foundation CEOs in the room: how to keep the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement from dying during the final days of Kentucky's legislative session.

Across the region, business leaders spent Wednesday organizing a full-court press in Frankfort that will include inundating the state Senate with phone calls and visits and making the case that the Brent Spence Bridge replacement is critical to the local and state economies, and too important to stall now.

The project suffered two major setbacks this week: First, the House of Representatives passed a public-private partnership (P3) bill with a provision that would ban tolls for the project, inserted at the request of state Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington. Then, House leaders yanked nearly $40 million slated for the project in the state road plan.

Business leaders are mobilizing quickly to try to persuade the state Senate to reverse one or both of those actions. Otherwise, the replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge – a project 15 years in the making – could be delayed indefinitely.

The bare minimum needed to keep the project moving forward over the next two years is $60 million, which Gov. Steve Beshear had proposed in his road plan. The House, however, yanked about $37 million in state money from the plan, leaving just $23 million in federal money earmarked for the project.

"We need to recapture the money that was stripped out of the road plan," said Debbie Simpson, chairwoman of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce board of directors. "The Senate has to find a way to get that back in the budget, because without that, there is no path forward."

Time is running out. With just 10 legislative days left before Kentucky lawmakers adjourn on April 15, business leaders acknowledged Wednesday that it's more important to secure the funding than to reverse Simpson's anti-toll amendment.

"Politics is the art of the possible, and that's really what we focused on: what's possible with the 10 days we have left?" said Jim Votruba, chairman of the CEO group. "What we believe is realistic at this point is to restore the $40 million."

Even that might be an uphill battle: On Wednesday, legislative leaders told my colleague Scott Wartman that without tolls, the Brent Spence Bridge replacement is unlikely to advance – so in their view, there's no point in spending tens of millions in state money on the project.

Votruba struck an optimistic tone, however.

"My sense is that on the Senate side, there is some support. We're trying to test how much," he said. "But there are a couple of our senators who are at least interested in keeping the $60 million intact, and my hope is that they'll be able to carry the day on that."

That sum would allow planning and design to continue while a solution is found to finance construction.

Both Beshear and business leaders believe that tolls are the only viable route forward, and legislative leaders have said as much. But Simpson and his colleagues from Northern Kentucky disagree, along with many Northern Kentuckians.

The question now is, can business leaders persuade the Senate to send $60 million our region's way and buy some time for advocates of the project to change their minds, or will the Legislature give it up as a lost cause?

"The chamber membership and chamber leadership, along with the CEO Roundtable, will be vigorously out there pursuing our senators – and any senator we can get the ear of, quite frankly – to get that money reinserted in the road plan," Debbie Simpson said.

"I think our senators can expect the phones to be ringing off the hook." ⬛

Comments on bridge plan

"I feel like I use it, I should pay (at least more) for it. I DON'T want my property or gas taxes to go up because then my husband and everyone else in the area who may use it three to four times a year will have to pay more too. I'm also tired of hearing about traffic backups due to tolls. The people that complain about that must be the ones that never use it or they would see that tolls won't make traffic any worse than it already is there."

Kelli Kegley Siracuse, Union

"The current bridge situation has got to change. If that means tolls, then so be it. I recently changed jobs (and took a pay cut) specifically so I could work closer to home and not have to deal with the traffic going into Ohio anymore."

Kelly Homer, Union

"I am in disbelief that anyone would want to delay the construction of a bridge for I-75 between Covington and Cincinnati. ... If a better way exists anxiously await learning of it. Meanwhile as I sit in the congestion, I will pray that today is not the day Brent Spence collapses."

Mike Becker, Villa Hills

"I'd be happy to pay a toll to use the bridge. It needs to be replaced and if paying tolls is the way to make it happen, I'm all for it. The longer it takes to make a decision, the more dangerous that bridge becomes."

Michelle Todd, Burlington

"The tolls are an awful idea. I feel there are better options than building a new bridge with tolls. Why not divert tractor-trailers to I-275? That seems to make more sense."

Richard Gutman, Erlanger

"I think tolls are necessary. The days of drivers pulling up to a booth and tossing change in a basket are gone. Toll roads now use technology that allows drivers to pay tolls without stopping and waiting. No one has to stop or even slow down for the toll to be collected."

James Bitter, Independence

"I am against tolls. The federal government has money to build bridges in Iraq and Afghanistan but not here. I have a hard time believing that. Congress needs to get their priorities straight."

Barbara Montgomery, Florence

"I don't want to have to pay tolls every time I go across the river. What are they going to do for people who work Downtown? Won't people be able to just go through Covington and around the bridge?"

Sheri Carter Wiles, Independence

"Just the other day President Obama pledged to have $300 billion budgeted for infrastructure. Surely NKY the rest of the Tristate area can get 1 percent of that money."

Matt Chastain, Covington

"I have always felt the federal government is the one that has the money and should have to find it not the state. Interstate bridges are something the federal government should have to build."

Don Ball, Fort Thomas

Comments on bridge plan

"I feel like I use it, I should pay (at least more) for it. I DON'T want my property or gas taxes to go up because then my husband and everyone else in the area who may use it three to four times a year will have to pay more too. I'm also tired of hearing about traffic backups due to tolls. The people that complain about that must be the ones that never use it or they would see that tolls won't make traffic any worse than it already is there."

Kelli Kegley Siracuse, Union

"The current bridge situation has got to change. If that means tolls, then so be it. I recently changed jobs (and took a pay cut) specifically so I could work closer to home and not have to deal with the traffic going into Ohio anymore."

Kelly Homer, Union

"I am in disbelief that anyone would want to delay the construction of a bridge for I-75 between Covington and Cincinnati. ... If a better way exists anxiously await learning of it. Meanwhile as I sit in the congestion, I will pray that today is not the day Brent Spence collapses."

Mike Becker, Villa Hills

"I'd be happy to pay a toll to use the bridge. It needs to be replaced and if paying tolls is the way to make it happen, I'm all for it. The longer it takes to make a decision, the more dangerous that bridge becomes."

Michelle Todd, Burlington

"The tolls are an awful idea. I feel there are better options than building a new bridge with tolls. Why not divert tractor-trailers to I-275? That seems to make more sense."

Richard Gutman, Erlanger

"I think tolls are necessary. The days of drivers pulling up to a booth and tossing change in a basket are gone. Toll roads now use technology that allows drivers to pay tolls without stopping and waiting. No one has to stop or even slow down for the toll to be collected."

James Bitter, Independence

"I am against tolls. The federal government has money to build bridges in Iraq and Afghanistan but not here. I have a hard time believing that. Congress needs to get their priorities straight."

Barbara Montgomery, Florence

"I don't want to have to pay tolls every time I go across the river. What are they going to do for people who work Downtown? Won't people be able to just go through Covington and around the bridge?"

Sheri Carter Wiles, Independence

"Just the other day President Obama pledged to have $300 billion budgeted for infrastructure. Surely NKY the rest of the Tristate area can get 1 percent of that money."

Matt Chastain, Covington

"I have always felt the federal government is the one that has the money and should have to find it not the state. Interstate bridges are something the federal government should have to build."